Suffolk Honor’s 100th Anniversary of the Easter Irish Uprising Monument unveiling, May 3rd
On May 3rd Suffolk County will be unveiling a monument to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the Easter Uprising in Ireland. An enormous effort was put in by team of volunteers headed up by Chairperson Chris Thompson. However, reluctant to provide a photo, he says it’s not about him. Thompson gives all the credit and praise to Belfast born Legislator Kate Browning and the dozen plus volunteers on his committee.
Thompson is President of the American Order of Hibernians (AOH) which covers Patchogue to Shirley. He is also part of the Suffolk County AOH Board. He said the monument that will call the Cohanlan Court Complex has been years in the making.
“I was approached by Kate Browning and this really was her idea, she reached out to all the different Irish organizations and said in a few years we’re going to have the 100th anniversary something to be done,” he shared.
THE MONUMENT COMES TO FRUITION
Browning’s idea excited many of Suffolk’s Irish American. It is estimated that 24% of Suffolk’s residents have some Irish heritage. Thompson of course is one of them. “We got together all the Irish organizations, the Irish language groups, the pipe bands, all the AOHs in the county and we decided we were going to work very hard and make this idea a reality and we have a very dedicated group,” Thompson shared.
The group set up a non for profit and 501 3c status with the IRS held fundraisers for the cost of the monument. “As a group we designed what we wanted, we went before the County Legislature to get permission to use the land at the Cohanlan Court Complex and we also had to get the permission from the Office of Court Administration as they occupy the county land,” he said.
The Suffolk County Legislature unanimously passed legislature for the monument to go forward after full approval of the Courts. The group of volunteers then commissioned an artist in Ireland and an artist in Suffolk to collaborate and begin to design a fitting tribute to the sixteen men who were murdered by the British in the Easter Uprising. A battle which commemorates the beginning of the End of English occupation for the long embattled and oppressed country.
“A stone mason took our ideas and turned it into a monument, I’ve seen pictures and its absolutely beautiful; it does service to those men who were executed,” said Thompson.
The monument will be unveiled May 3rd at noon at the Cohanlan Court Complex. Many Irish organizations are slated to be present.
During the years of planning and working toward the monument with his dedicated team of volunteers, little did Thompson know that all the while some firsthand history of the famed uprising was very close to him, right inside his own family.
“My brother in -law’s grandfather was also part of the rising in Dublin, he just happened to show me a diary his grandfather kept when he was in prison,” said Thompson. For two years he and his committee were meeting and planning the monument and unbeknownst to him there was a fabulous treasure awaiting him. “The diary is filled stories from all the men and artwork and poetry, it’s how they occupied their time,” he shared. He says that diary is an invaluable piece of the history of the Uprising and he was fascinated and taken by it’s amazing contents.
“Sixteen men were executed from the uprising, those names appear on the monument, this is about them,” he said. He added that the story of the Irish is an incredible one and many proud Irish Americans will certainly agree. Much of that history can be found at The American Irish Historical Society in New York. The website has extraordinary information as well. Thompson said after the great Hunger, the Irish came over by the throngs and they became the laborers, then the union leaders, then, cops, the lawyers, the judges, politicians and one even made it to the highest office in the land – the late President John F. Kennedy.
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
John F. Kennedy
From the American Irish History Society Website: www.aihs.org
The Society’s library houses more than 10,000 volumes, the most complete private collection of Irish and American Irish history and literature in the United States. The library features a temperature-controlled rare books room that holds another 1,000 volumes, and an unparalleled collection of newspapers and newsletters dating back to the late-18th century, and several early and mid-19th century newspapers, such as The Nation, The United Irishman, and the Dublin Penny Journal.
Also housed in the library is the Society’s unique collection of letters from Patrick Pearse and Charles Stewart Parnell, the irreplaceable archives of other societies and organizations, and the personal papers of leading Irish Americans like Daniel F. Cohalan.
The collection is complemented by works of art from such noted Irish artists as Nathaniel Hone, John Faulkener, George Russell (A.E.), John Butler Yeats, Aloysius O’Kelly, and Augustus St. Gaudens. The Society also holds an extensive collection of Irish music, including a taped interview with Brendan Behan that became his Confessions of a Rebel.
Following our re-opening in 2008, the Society has been working tirelessly to sort out and catalogue our library and archives. At long last, we are happy to enable the public with a number of documents listing some of our more popular library & archive inquiries.
The American Irish Historical Society celebrates many things including the rich cultural lives of the Irish, it’s literature, dignitaries and scholars. It celebrates what American Irish did to the building of this country and emanated from the Irish Need Not Apply Era – when Irish were seen as lower class in this country and store fronts, pubs and eateries has signs hanging that read IRISH NEED NOT APPLY. The new Suffolk monument celebrates the lives of those lost in the 1916 Easter Uprising and Irish Americans in Suffolk can take pride in the rich heritage and great success of their people.